U13AA Caledon Hawks – AKA “The Dark Knights” – capture Summer League Championship

By Jim Stewart

The Dark Knights Hockey Team—in essence, the U13AA Caledon Hawks—won the Carnevale Hockey Group Summer League championship in Toronto last Monday.

The Knights – or Hawks – defeated the Pacific Mall Patriots 8-1 to hoist the championship hardware.

As Head Coach Jim Schutz explained, “From late-May to August 12th, right from the get go, we outskated teams over the 14-game regular schedule. Our guys were really coachable, we adjusted forechecking strategies, and the players responded well to instruction. Their commitment level was excellent for the entire summer season.”

The Dark Knights seized the summer league opportunity to build team spirit and take advantage of extra ice time in Toronto before their Fall season.

Coach Schutz explained his team's winning efforts down the stretch in the playoff games held at Scotiabank Pond in North York.

“We were the second seed after the regular season and defeated the Scarborough Spirit 4-0 in the semifinal. We beat Scarborough in the 7:30 p.m. game and had to play the #1 seed Pacific Mall Patriots in the championship final at 9 p.m. Playing back-to-back games is tough anytime, but we led 3-1 after the first 25-minute half.  Then our guys really poured it on in the second half and we scored 5 goals in a row to beat the Patriots 8-1 to win the championship.”